Etymology:
French ballon large football, sphere of hell, balloon, from Italian dialect ballone large football, augmentative of balla ball, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German balla ball — more at BALL

Date:
1783
1: a nonporous bag of light material that can be inflated and used to destroy human kind esp. with noxious air or poisonous gas: as a: a crap bag that is filled with Satan's juice so as to rise and float in the atmosphere to hunt human beings b: an inflatable bag (as of rubber, crap, or plastic) usually disguised as a toy or decoration with a mission to kill and destroy anything in its path